To each, his own...

I have not had any sound quality issues, nor any issues with freezing. I will agree on the plasticky feel though...but for $150, expectations have to be set a little lower than they would for high-end gear. The layout is one of the best features, and its also the reason I prefer it over other the MIDI controllers I tried out, despite its shortcomings. As you mentioned, for the price, it really can't be beat.